California can enforce its ban on "conversion" therapy that aims to turn gay youths straight, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday, saying the law regulates medical practice and does not interfere with free speech or the right of parents to raise their children.

The law, the first of its kind in the nation, was enacted last year but has been on hold during court review. It bars licensed therapists from engaging in "sexual orientation change efforts" with patients under 18.

Those efforts have included counseling and training to encourage opposite-sex behavior, hypnosis or aversion therapy such as hormone treatments and nausea-inducing drugs. National psychiatric and health care organizations have condemned such therapy as deceptive and potentially dangerous, saying it can lead to depression and suicidal impulses.

But conservative Christian legal organizations, representing individual parents, children and therapists, said the law violates therapists' free expression and parents' rights to make important medical decisions for their children.

Conflicting rulings

Two federal judges in Sacramento issued conflicting rulings on the law's constitutionality in December, and the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco blocked enforcement of the law while it considered the case.

In Wednesday's 3-0 ruling, a panel of the appeals court declared the law constitutional and said it can be enforced, although opponents can keep it on hold with further appeals. The court said the law regulates conduct, not speech.

"The Legislature acted rationally when it decided to protect the well-being of minors," Judge Susan Graber said in the court's ruling. She noted that psychiatric organizations stopped classifying homosexuality as an illness 40 years ago and now believe that efforts to "cure" it are both ineffective and harmful.

Opponents of the law relied in part on the appeals court's 2002 ruling that upheld the right of California physicians to recommend marijuana to their patients and said the federal government's attempt to penalize the doctors violated their freedom of speech. But Graber said the gay-therapy law bans only "a form of medical treatment" and leaves therapists free to express their opinions.

Pro-con discussion OK

The California law "does nothing to prevent licensed therapists from discussing the pros and cons of (the therapy) with their patients," or recommending that they seek such treatment in other states or from unlicensed practitioners in California, Graber said.

While parents have the right to protect their children's well-being, Graber said, they have no right to override a state's health care laws that forbid specific medicines or types of treatment.

Opponents of the law said they would ask the full appeals court for a rehearing and appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.

"Legislators and judges in the state of California have essentially barged into the private therapy rooms of victimized young people" who "do not want to act on same-sex attractions," said attorney Mat Staver, chairman of Liberty Counsel. His clients in the case include parents, children, counselors and the National Association for Research and Therapy on Homosexuality.

The author of the legislation, state Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance (Los Angeles County), said the ruling showed that the Constitution does not protect "psychological child abuse."

"The law has caught up to the truth," Lieu aid. "Sexual orientation is not a mental illness or defect, but rather the beautiful realization of what it means to be human."